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Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Hello all

I was wondering if anyone else has tried the iPhone/ipad app "Voice Builder" which is centered around Gary Catona's voice building method. Or, if you haven't tried the app (or don't have an iPhone/pad) if you have tried the voice building method and what you think of it

www.garycatona.com is his website. Very interesting method, basically just using five vowels and sliding them up and down (like sirens) while singing with a very low larynx and singing from the back of the throat to really build the muscles. I have been doing it and have been really enjoying it. I once went to a teacher who taught this method, but I have since learned a lot about voice and feel like this time around I can guide myself and am having more success.

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Disclaimer-Anything I write or try to help people with on here are techniques and things that have worked for ME. They are not necessarily" right" or "wrong" but have worked for ME and my 20+ yrs as a professional working singer.Thank you

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Yeah I took 2 lessons from him. And also one of the singers that sings with me alot also sings with Sade and she takes Gary on the road sometimes to warm them up. So he gave me some and it was exactly the same stuff. It's very overhyped. And also very stressful on the voice. I personally wasn't a fan and you could do it yourself. Slow sirens all vowels deep in the throat low low depressed larynx on all intervals that's it. Not very healthy and very over hyped since Whitney's death so he's using someone death as a marketing tool LAME...

Disclaimer-Anything I write or try to help people with on here are techniques and things that have worked for ME. They are not necessarily" right" or "wrong" but have worked for ME and my 20+ yrs as a professional working singer.Thank you

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Danielformica wrote:

Yeah I took 2 lessons from him. And also one of the singers that sings with me alot also sings with Sade and she takes Gary on the road sometimes to warm them up. So he gave me some and it was exactly the same stuff. It's very overhyped. And also very stressful on the voice. I personally wasn't a fan and you could do it yourself. Slow sirens all vowels deep in the throat low low depressed larynx on all intervals that's it. Not very healthy and very over hyped since Whitney's death so he's using someone death as a marketing tool LAME...

I actually read Gary's book. His answer was to become baritone.

Well, that's okay, if you are already a baritone. I know it's not popular, but ya just gotta have to longer folds of a baritone to be a baritone.

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

ronws wrote:

Danielformica wrote:

Yeah I took 2 lessons from him. And also one of the singers that sings with me alot also sings with Sade and she takes Gary on the road sometimes to warm them up. So he gave me some and it was exactly the same stuff. It's very overhyped. And also very stressful on the voice. I personally wasn't a fan and you could do it yourself. Slow sirens all vowels deep in the throat low low depressed larynx on all intervals that's it. Not very healthy and very over hyped since Whitney's death so he's using someone death as a marketing tool LAME...

I actually read Gary's book. His answer was to become baritone.

Well, that's okay, if you are already a baritone. I know it's not popular, but ya just gotta have to longer folds of a baritone to be a baritone.

(watch me duck as the hurt feelings fly ....)

All tenors want to be baritones? Ironic since all baris want to be tenors. OH CRUEL FATE!

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Mr Bounce wrote:

ronws wrote:

Danielformica wrote:

Yeah I took 2 lessons from him. And also one of the singers that sings with me alot also sings with Sade and she takes Gary on the road sometimes to warm them up. So he gave me some and it was exactly the same stuff. It's very overhyped. And also very stressful on the voice. I personally wasn't a fan and you could do it yourself. Slow sirens all vowels deep in the throat low low depressed larynx on all intervals that's it. Not very healthy and very over hyped since Whitney's death so he's using someone death as a marketing tool LAME...

I actually read Gary's book. His answer was to become baritone.

Well, that's okay, if you are already a baritone. I know it's not popular, but ya just gotta have to longer folds of a baritone to be a baritone.

(watch me duck as the hurt feelings fly ....)

All tenors want to be baritones? Ironic since all baris want to be tenors. OH CRUEL FATE!

Amen, brother.

I have heard from someone who thinks our voices are determined mostly by environment. The constant father figure in my life was our step-grandfather, a bass. And he sang bass in church choir. And my schoolmates and other men in my life were baritones. And when others wanted to mimick me, they would speak in falsetto. And I tried for years to lower my voice, to speak and sing lower. And it didn't work. To where I thought I was singing something like a baritone and a wise man said, in so many words, that's not baritone. You don't have that ring in that range.

Why can't I be a baritone, like all my firends and some relatives? I thought environment took care of all of that. Evidently, it only created the expectation. But the tuning of my voice improved once I accepted my limitations. i quit fighting myself.

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

I'm not really sure what the poster meant when he said that Mr. Catona's book says that all tenors are baritones. What I took from his book was that your singing register is partially determined by your physiology, but that singers are able to still increase their singing range by making their vocal muscles stronger, more flexible, and more coordinated. What he does say in the book is that singing in unnaturally high keys can damage your vocal cords, and that when doing the voice building exercises, one should start in their lower register and work up to the higher register.

In addition to reading his book, I have used Voice Builder, and I noticed a difference in the strength of my voice after a couple days. While it caused a little soreness and fatigue for the first couple days, the poster that said that it is dangerous or over-taxing is wrong. Just like lifting weights, one will feel soreness as the muscle strengthens. Also, the lowered larynx is only for the exercises, not singing, which Mr. Catona makes quite clear.

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

I didn't mean to offend you, Samson,

When I read the book, he was all a-gaga about how Frank Sinatra sounded much better by deepening his voice to baritone and held him as the example of how a voice should sound. I really didn't get any tenor stuff out of his writing. And yes, he does advocate, it seems, "muscle-building," so to speak.

I guess I just have a different viewpoint.

Maybe Gary's method really would help someone like Barry White sing "The Priests of Syrinx."

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

No offense taken, sorry if it came off like that. Although, if you listen to Frank Sinatra, he was a pretty lousy singer in his early years. His tone really did improve once he started singing properly.

Re: Gary Catona's "Voice Builder" app

Just as a follow up, I've been using this app pretty hard core, and I have never seen so much improvement in my voice. I have used singing success, mastering mix, TVS, estill, done some CVT stuff, tried Frisell, as well as just straight up self experimentation, and nothing else has worked on my voice like this one.

Not saying it will work for everyone. But just in case anyone else is interested and is feeling hopeless like I was, this really has revitalized my voice, enough for me to finally pony up and book a studio to recod the EP I have been trying to record for 5 years or so. If anyone is a little confused on the voice building method, feel free to message me and Skype with me. I'm not an expert by any means but I've taken some lessons with someone certified with voice building so I can probably get you started.

Disclaimer-Anything I write or try to help people with on here are techniques and things that have worked for ME. They are not necessarily" right" or "wrong" but have worked for ME and my 20+ yrs as a professional working singer.Thank you